Today's lesson

Being able to recognize what’s going wrong and working on it is a good step forward. No matter what you do. Business relation errors are costly. Sometimes holding your pride for a moment and putting the calculator to work before make a rash decision is not a bad idea. I’ve done that mistake before.
Being able to recognize what other people are doing wrong and preparing yourself is priceless. Always easier to learn from others mistakes.

 

clicked?

Well, I confess here that my other attempts to move into this industry as an owner and create a steady stream of income met with failure because of outside influences that were beyond my control. even after a few years in the industry in the past as a driver, It took me a long time to figure out what this really was all about.

I was told something long before any of this and I had forgotten not to seek out the successful people but those who failed, listen to the negative, and look for the mistakes they made to avoid making them yourself. Use the successful people's advice to reinforce what you see are mistakes to avoid the mistakes. So I stopped listening to the people who had nothing but positive advice like "Come on in, the water's great" crap and started to seek out failures. It wasn't hard to find them, even in the land before the internet forums like this one. it didn't take long before it came into focus.

It wasn't until my cousin got stuck with three trucks that I took from him (he lost a bet) and got off the road finally, at the behest of my kids and wife that it started to form. I had to make some serious changes in my attitude and my willingness to sacrifice for a goal which I found many are not willing to do. I was fortunate to work for a couple of fleets in the office for almost nothing to learn the back side of the business, one of them is huge now but it wasn't hard to find failed owners to talk to then when they were small.

Two important things I learned were;

1. This isn't for everyone. Just because you can drive a truck or think you can, you won't be successful in running a business.
2. Failures are just bumps in the road.

Money management and attitude were the keys to this. Failures are always related to money management, nothing more than that.

Attitude is a willingness to look beyond to make it a success. Don't get the new pickup, don't spend a lot of money on food, stop buying gaming crap - read a book on your reset.

 

Great advice, but I fear you are preaching to the choir. Being moderately successful in trucking, I know that, the other "thanks" folks know that, but we still have, what seems an endless stream of applicants, kind of like MLB batters. They swing away, and once in a while, the bat comes in contact with the ball, but usually it's a swing and a miss, AND, there are no consequences anymore. People buy new pickups, spend a fortune on food and toys, without what seems like a care in the world. In my day, I, and many others, were taught to be frugal, and it paid off. Failures today take on a different meaning than what we were taught. I'm not really sure what the future holds, we won't see it, won't be pretty though, and we can rest assured, we did it the right way. I'm not sure I agree with "seeking out failures", as they are going to have a jaded view of certain situations, usually what made them fail, as opposed to someone who is successful. Quite frankly, I stayed away from the failures and tried to surround myself with good people. It, in part, is why I frequent this site.

 

Word.

 

I gotta say it's a little amusing company driver gripes and complaints. Not to say some of it isn't legit but absolutely no comparison to routine stuff o/o has to deal with on the regular.